Mathematical modelling and simulation for the drying process of vegetable wholesale by-products in a rotary dryer Original Research Article

Disposal of agricultural and agro-food industry by-products has become an increasing environmental problem. Drying is one of the possible conditioning processes that can be applied to these by-products before using them as cattle feed or soil conditioner. In this paper, a dynamic model to simulate the dehydration process of wastes of vegetable from a wholesale market in a rotary dryer is proposed. The dryer was divided into 10 sections and mass and energy balances were established in each of them. The results have been validated in a semi-industrial dryer. The model predicts air and product moisture and temperature depending on working conditions of the rotary dryer. Inlet air temperature has been shown to be the variable that has the greatest effect, on both outlet moisture content of the product and on outlet air temperature.